French press review 31 August 2015

Austria's truckers of shame are on the front page of the French press, as the migrant crisis worsens. And, an American boy lands an 11-year jail sentence for running a jihadi recruitment website.   

DR

We start with the shocking story of a 17-year-old American college student sentenced to 11 years in prison for masterminding the radicalisation of his classmate and other recruits from places as far away as Finland and South Africa.

Le Figaro reports that a Virginia state court found Ali Shukri Amin, who migrated from Sudan to the United States at the age of three, guilty of inciting his 18-year-old friend Reza Niknejad to go swell the ranks of Islamist insurgents in Syria. The federal tribunal also sentenced him to surveillance for life and fined him 100,000 dollars (89,000 euros) for his material and ideological support for the terrorist organisation.

Le Figaro reports that the young Amin apparently had no regrets when the judge asked him if he had something to say. "My spiritual mission is just starting," he explained, adding that he may be open for some adjustments.

Shukri Amin’s Twitter account reportedly has 4,000 followers and the court was told that he not only recruited his classmate who is currently fighting with the Islamic State armed group in Syria, but personally accompanied him to the airport to catch his flight.

“Austria and the truckers of shame”: that is the title of a Libération article on the gruesome discovery of 71 decomposing corpses in an abandoned truck on a strategic motorway in Austria last week. An Afghan man and three Bulgarians have been presented to a Hungarian judge in connection with the shocking trade, according to the left-leaning newspaper.

It quotes Hungarian police as saying that a suspected human trafficker of Romanian origin had been arrested in connection with Thursday's gruesome discovery. Separately, German border police said they had found 26 migrants including three dehydrated children on a similar truck abandoned across the Hungarian border.

La Croix welcomes the crackdown on traffickers and relays Pope Francis’ appeal to Christians to welcome the estimated 140,000 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq who have transited since January on their way to Europe.

Is Economy Minister Emannuel Macron a "bogeyman" and is Prime Minister Manuel Valls playing with him? This is the question Libération puts to its readers as it examines the ravages of Macron's remarks regarding his perceived "cause effect" relationship between the French stagnating economy and the 35-hour work week Socialist dogma.

Monsieur Macron's remarks to the business chiefs' summer school, in which he described the policy as a grave error, had been set to poison the atmosphere at the ruling party's "université d'été". The Communist party daily l'Humanité described Macron's remarks a deflagration which exposed a grave confrontation taking place between the government and a large group of Socialist leftists, Greens, Left Front apparatchiks and others. But as Libé reports, Manuel Valls, for once, hushed Macron down, thereby presenting himself to the party as a uniter.

But according to Le Figaro, Valls couldn't have put out the fire without flattering the left wing of his party.

And the sports daily l’Equipe is flabbergasted by the disconcerting ease with which Paris Saint-Germain crushed Monaco at the Stade Louis II on Sunday.

Monaco the main challenger to the French Premier League throne, was thrashed 3-nil as the stylish Parisians opened up an implacable seven-point gap between them and the Monegasques. This was PSG’s fourth consecutive victory since the start of the new League 1 season, and L’Equipe doubts there will be anyone to stop them from repeating their clean sweep of last season.